The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration has predicted that the current dry spell could affect even more provinces next month.
“It’s possible that the areas [affected] will increase by May during the peak of summer,” Pagasa weather forecaster Samuel Duran said.
He said that the end of the dry spell currently affecting 30 provinces cannot be predicted yet and will have to undergo further evaluation.
Pagasa has officially declared a dry spell mostly in Mindanao and in some areas in Luzon and the Visayas.
The areas which are experiencing lower than usual rainfall areas are Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Batanes, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Palawan, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Bohol, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Norte, Basilan, Lanao del Sur and Sulu.
Meanwhile, Malacanang said that the Department of Agriculture and other government agencies are now focused on helping farmers deal with the El Nino phenomenon.
“The Department of Agriculture and other government agencies are focused on the issue. And their focus is to help out the farmers, distribute seedlings of other alternatives crops which they could plant. The government also deployed irrigation resources through the help of the department and other government agencies,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said yesterday on state-run dzRB.
In response to mounting concerns about the possible impact of a dry spell on Filipino farmers, Greenpeace Philippines called on both the national and local governments to adopt and support policies and programs to help the country’s farmers move towards a more climate-resilient model.
In a statement, Greenpeace said they recently witnessed and documented the impact of a two-month dry spell, coinciding with a weak El Niño, on local agriculture during a recent visit to North Cotabato.
The municipality of M’lang has been declared under a state of calamity a month after Pagasa declared the onset of the El Niño phenomenon in March.
“I’ve just returned from a visit to North Cotabato and was struck by the number of farms and families already suffering due to the dry spell. Harvests have been reduced or lost, and families are going hungry, reinforcing the urgent need to shift our country’s agriculture system to a more climate-resilient model,” Greenpeace Food and Agriculture Campaigner Wilhelmina Pelegrina said.
Records from the Provincial Risk Reduction Management Council of North Cotabato estimate the damage caused by the dry spell to M’lang’s rice crops at P42 million so far.
Meanwhile, the government is set to conduct cloud-seeding operations in Mindanao in a bid to ease the impact of the dry spell which has destroyed crops across thousands of hectares of banana plantations in the area, the Agriculture Department said over the weekend.
The agency said it was gearing up to cushion the impact of the prolonged dry season brought about by the El Niño phenomenon.
The Bureau of Soils and Water Management and the Agriculture Department in Region 11 said with the massive damage caused by the dry spell in Davao region, it would conduct cloud seeding intervention on affected areas.
BSWM technical staff Mike Nota said 37 percent of farms and plantations in Davao region were damaged.
“About P3 to P4 million has been allocated for cloud seeding and10 percent from the amount will be given to the affected local government unit,” Nota said.
Agriculture Department assistant regional director for research and regulatory affairs Rafael Mercado said the agency has prepared the necessary interventions needed by affected provinces.
Mercado said the corn program already prepared 6,923 bags of corn seeds as buffer stock while the rice program readied 4, 200 bags certified rice seeds and 1,130 bags registered rice seeds.
He said the agency was also ready to deploy 125 units of pump irrigation system. Juzel Danganan, Sandy Araneta and Anna Leah Gonzales